Here's the Ticket: How to create revenue from your event tickets

School districts use tickets for everything from athletic events to school plays.  Most districts use tickets for their high schools and middle schools. 

There's a simple way to bring your tickets in-house so you can earn the revenues from the advertising placed on the ticket backs instead of allowing for an outside company to send you tickets every year and keep the advertising dollars for themselves.

1.)  Assess your inventory -  How many tickets will you need.  The best way to measure this is to look over past gate receipts and/or even look over an old ticket order form if you do use an outside company.

2.) Find out the costs - There are a bunch of ticket companies out there.  Contact them and get a quote.  If you need 100,000 tickets or one million it will be worth your time either way.  This must be done and be accurate.  You need to know the costs before you price your packages (can you imagine selling the ticket backs to an advertiser and then losing money!)  Be very specific and be uniform when you are gathering quotes.  I always recommend getting five (5) quotes or more.  You'll be amazed at the pricing discrepency depending on the quantity of tickets you need.  When I say, specific I mean you let them know what ticket weight you need, do you need color, do you want them in rolls or books, are the tickets all the same, do you want incremental numbering for auditing purposes, etc.  Here are a few company websites that might be of help to get your quotes: 
http://www.admitoneproducts.com/?gclid=CIOpvv29-acCFQat7Qodp1QPrA
http://www.globeticket.com/
http://www.nationalticket.com/
http://www.worldwidetickets.com/

3.)  Create the package - I'm a big believer in the "Hear-See" formula.  When a fan sees a coupon for a restaurant or product on their event ticket, a great way to increase the chance that the fan will use the coupon is to have the person "hear" it as well.  During the game we provide our ticket back advertiser with two (2) PA announcements at football games and we even allowed them to sponsor the game's Coin Toss.
It's also a great way to differentiate yourself as an attractive advertising option.

3.) Pitch to sponsors - This can be the most intimidating part of the whole process.  If you already have companies that work with you, they are a great starting point.  You want to let them know you appreciate that they trust you with their advertising and marketing dollars so this is a great way to do that.  They don't have to sponsor the ticket program and never look at it like you are trying to squeeze more money out of the them.  If sincere about your advertising program then your sponsors will be reaping the benefits of new customer acquisition, increases in the frequency of visits, a jump in customer loyalty, and heightened brand awareness. 

As always, if you have any questions.  Just contact me.  I can help you along and warn you of some pitfalls that are out there as well as offer a few additional short cuts. 

And, if you just need tickets and don't want to get into the ad sales business, this company won't give you money but they may just give you free tickets to use for your events (which still will save your school district some money).

It's Got More Problems Than Wings

I'm going to bet you get approached a lot by companies wanting you to participate in this or that.  They'll tell you it's free and they are doing it "for the kids" but, the truth of the matter is this, these are branded events.

The latest and one of the most stunning examples is the arrogance of Red Bull.  They now host a high school 7-on-7 football tournament.  See here for details:  http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/001242851364517

The funny part of all this is that Red Bull is being "last called" on the sidelines all over because of the health risks.  See here: http://www2.dailyprogress.com/sports/2010/sep/24/energy-drinks-banned-high-school-practices-games-ar-524220/

I mean, come on, really?  Do you think it's wise to chug back a boatload of caffeine before you run sprints up and down the field?  The reason companies like Red Bull get involved in stuff like this isn't because they love football or your kids.  It's because they have total environmental control.  The aforementioned tournament drew almost a 1,000 students in a stadium last year where Red Bull gave out promotional bags, uniforms donning Red Bull, and - you guessed it - a ton of Red Bull. 

This borderlines on irresponsible marketing.  Nonetheless, I'd keep my program far away from it.

Holding Inventory Hostage

The biggest joke surrounding advertising with high school athletic programs is this:

When you have signs on your scoreboards, inside your gyms, and on the back of your tickets and you are not seeing a dime for it.

Don't get me wrong.  With certain programs, it's easier to get that basketball scorer's table, or that new scoreboard for your football field, or free tickets to use for your athletic events. 

But, if you invest a little time and effort, you can make some serious cash from those spots. 

For example, in one of the high schools I worked with there is a company that put an illuminated billboard in the gym.  They come by and change the advertising in and out every year and keep promising a check but when you call them.... all you get is crickets. 

Outside companies that sell advertising don't care if they high-jack your inventory and hold it hostage. 

That's space you could have sold.  And next time hopefully you will.

Bringing The Right Company To The Table

We have this joke we always use in our slide presentations when we want to emphasize the fact that your sponsors should always be appropriate or, as we say, "relevant." 

We normally show a slide that our graphics guru, Eddie Hernandez, developed and it's this digitally-enhanced outfield baseball fence that has two sponsors that we felt didn't match... it always gets a laugh at presentations. See below:

But, now, thanks to the FHSAA (Florida High School Athletic Association) High School Football Finals at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, we no longer have to use an image we made up.  We have a real one that was displayed before the St. Thomas Aquinas/Plant football finals on Friday night....

Maybe we're just too sensative to the possible parental backlash.  To be honest, nobody at The Citrus Bowl seemed to mind or notice, probably because parents are so used to seeing this type of advertising at sporting events and venues.  I'm pretty sure though that, if anybody contacted Anheiser-Busch and said, "hey, we're running the state high school football finals... can we take the bulbs out of your signage or cover it up?"  Bud would be more than happy to oblige.  They don't want or need the bad press.

It might fly at the Citrus Bowl during high school football games but I would dare not test it at a high school.  Even with the same association presiding over the same coaches and student-athletes, there is a huge difference between watching a high school football game at a privately-owned facility and attending your students high school stadium and seeing the exact same signage.  Our expectations are different and it's good advice to keep that in mind when we're scouting for corporate partners.

Buses: The Inside Scoop and Outside Chance.

There's really a central question surrounding this one and it's simple Risk vs. Reward:  Does the revenue from advertising on your school buses justify the risk. 

Risk is the chance that the advertising on the inside of the bus while suffer the wrath of the public backlash and put the breaks on your program or that somebody reading that ad on the back of the bus isn't paying attention to the brake lights and now you have a much bigger problem.

Anybody that has talked to me about advertising in schools knows I'm not a fan of advertising to children in a "trapped environment."  That includes the insides of classrooms and school buses.  If they don't have a choice to leave the immediate surroundings then I don't think it's a good place to be putting advertisements. 

I don't like the locker wraps either.... too forced.  I don't like murals or mobiles either - blurs the line a bit too much for me. 

There's too much easy inventory out there to mess with the sticky stuff.  There's also two much more important groups your missing:  Parents and employees.   Most of the big companies have their own rules already in place about "advertising to children" and they are very strict.  Concentrate your efforts and focus on the parents and the employees.  There's good money in that and a lot less hassle.

41st National Athletic Directors Conference

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) are hosting the 41st National Athletic Directors Conference Orlando World Center Marriott Resort from December 15th through December 19th. 

I'll be presenting in the third workshop session on Sunday morning from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.  The workshop will be on "Lining Up Sponsors For Your Athletic Program."  It will be moderated by Tracy Leinen, CMAA, Athletic Director from Boise (Idaho) High School.

We'll be discussing district-wide and single school partnerships.  We'll discuss how we can cultivate and keep these partnerships valuable and hassle-free.  At last count, we already have over 200 participants signed up for this workshop.  Hope to see you there. 

The flood gates

Looks like school districts all over the U.S. are looking into advertising programs.  I've been lucky enough to get to talk to some of these districts and have heard some good - and bad - ideas.

For example, putting electronic billboards on your chest and walking up and down the bleachers for fans to see... well, you call that one.

There's two things the school district I work with abides by that I think has distinguished ourselves and has prevented us from receiving any push back from anybody in our community.

Two simple rules:

• Keep the advertising relevant - Work with companies that complement the schools and/or programs that they affiliate with.  Neither the company or the school or school district will benefit from a partnership that is not relevant.  
• No trapped environments - we don't do anything on the inside of buses or inside of classrooms.  We haven't put any advertising anywhere that a student, employee or fan can't walk away from.  In fact, I really haven't found many companies even want the students.  School districts would benefit more from working with companies that want to reach parents and/or school employees and use that as the anchor to your program. 

Don't open the flood gates to outside companies that don't have the best interest of your school district in mind.  And, never allow multiple companies to sell the same inventory.  I know it sounds good initially when somebody brings it up and says let's just let all of them sell it so we ensure it sells... but, after you think about it, consider this:
You'll have companies over-promising and under-delivering.  They'll also undercut each other to win the business and that will drop the value of your inventory.  It also confuses local businesses when multiple school programs, the school district, the booster club, the band, football team, PTA, and teachers are all calling them asking for donations and proposing partnerships - add in multiple third-party companies and you'll confuse them even more.